On the first page of a new notebook, I ruled a vertical line about a third of the way across. It was meant to keep the page orderly. The narrow column would hold dates; the wide one would hold everything else.
By the fourth page, the dates had company. There was a question mark, an arrow pointing to the previous page, and a drawing of the plug I needed to buy. The margin had become a place for things that did not fit the sentence beside them.
Alongside the main thought
The most useful additions arrived later. Reading back through a list, I wrote “ask whom?” next to an instruction that had seemed perfectly clear when I made it. Beside a paragraph about a room, I added the direction the window faced.
These were not corrections exactly. The first version remained readable. The margin let another version stand next to it without deciding which one should survive.
A screen can do this too, of course. Comments, notes, and revision histories all provide places to put a second thought. What I like about the ruled line is that it keeps the second thought in view. It cannot collapse into an icon.
Space left for later
Near the end of the notebook, the main column became narrower. I had learned how much room the later notes would need. Some pages now contain more writing beside the original entry than inside it.
The dates still fit. They have simply stopped being the most interesting things on that side of the line.
